Capitalist newspapers like Rech
and Novoye
Vremya[3] have published articles attacking our passage through
Germany and insinuating that the new arrivals were aiding the
German
imperialists.[1]

Izvestia
of the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies[4] reprints in
full the report published in yesterday’s
Pravda[2][5]
which
was presented to the Executive Committee of the Soviet of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies on the very first day
after our arrival. In addition to the report, Izvestia publishes
the resolution of the Executive Committee, which it gives in the
following words:

“Having heard the report of Comrades Zurabov and Zinoviev, the
Executive Committee decided to take the matter up immediately
with the Provisional Government and to take steps towards
securing the immediate return to Russia of all emigrants,
irrespective of their political views and their attitude towards
the war. The results of the negotiations with the government
will be published in the near future.—Editors.”

Here you have a small—a very small, but very
characteristic—picture of two worlds. One, the world of the
capitalists,
Rech, Russkaya Volya, Novoye Vremya, dark
hints, vile
insinuations against the socialists; the other, the world of the
revolutionary democrats, of the workers’ and soldiers’ deputies,
who in a calm, consistent, and dignified manner have decided to
“take steps”. Steps leading to what? Steps leading to
what was not done by the Provisional Government!

Mind you, the
Executive Committee, in passing this resolution, was fully aware
of the political dissensions that existed between it
and the Bolsheviks. For capitalists this would be a pretext for
insinuations. Human dignity is something one need not look for
in the world of capitalists.

Notes

[1]The famous—notoriously famous—Russkaya Volya in its
article against us provides “incriminating” material quite in
the vein of Rech. Won’t Milyukov and Co. be ashamed of such a
neighbour?
—Lenin